Let’s be real, the VC release of the Game Boy Pokémon games is one of the easiest ways that Nintendo could make itself a nice profit. Pokémon historically is a franchise that moves units and nostalgia is a powerful factor in driving sales of the original, which are rather dated by modern standards. Few are complaining about the...

After months of speculation prior to the Nintendo Switch being officially revealed in October 2016, it's fair to say that the initial reaction was largely very positive. This early enthusiasm from the gaming community has been backed up by decent software support from Nintendo and a ever-growing install base; the Switch...

The Switch has just had its first E3 but we still don't know exactly how the Virtual Console is going to work on the system.
Nintendo has previously spoken about linking some kind of classic game service to the forthcoming paid subscription system, even going as far as to state that...

It may not be a trend that suits creators, but the public don't like paying for things as much as they used to. It's the great revolution that the internet has delivered - news is free, lots of video streaming is free or has a lower monthly cost, so as a result gamers want their content for less...

When it comes to the Nintendo Switch, the Virtual Console is still largely a big question mark. We do know that a retro game will be given out each month with Nintendo's upcoming paid online service, but beyond that, details around the Switch Virtual Console have been quite scarce. Fortunately, the Wii U and 3DS VC's are...

The official Twitter channel for the Seiken Densetsu series has tweeted footage of the third game running on the Nintendo Switch.
Seiken Densetsu 3 is the sequel to Seiken Densetsu 2 (obviously), a game better known in the west as Secret of Mana. It's widely regarded as one of the best RPGs ever made - as you'll know if...

Nintendo has revealed that its retro-focused Virtual Console service will not be ready for the Nintendo Switch launch. The company has stated that it will share more information on this service "in the future".
In slightly better news, Nintendo has also revealed that funds currently held on 3DS and Wii...

Ever since the Wii U there's been a wait for GameCube on the Virtual Console. Nintendo's current home console never received that library of games, though it was backwards compatible with Wii games and its Virtual Console went right up to Nintendo 64; in other words, the GameCube is...

Here's an interesting topic to get debate going - what if Nintendo lifted a ROM of Super Mario Bros. from the internet and then repurposed it for the Wii Virtual Console a decade ago? It would certainly put Nintendo's policies against emulators in the spotlight.
That's the claim made in a...

F-Zero X has had a bit of a rough time on the Virtual Console this generation. The high-speed racer ran into some serious control issues when it made its Wii U VC debut in Europe, and these issues actually rendered it nigh unplayable. Fortunately, Nintendo listened to fan outcry and fixed the issue a bit later, and...

Over the past decade or so Nintendo has made significant strides in its online / download stores, with the eShop platform becoming vital for both 3DS and Wii U. Those stores both learnt lessons from their predecessors - on Wii and DSi - in terms of becoming more accessible and rewarding for Indies, while...

As part of the big January unveiling, or perhaps not long after, we'd expect the eShop (or new equivalent) to get a big push for the Nintendo Switch. We already know of multiple 'Nindie' developers that are actively working on projects, and considering the growth in importance of downloads it's inevitable that the new...

The Virtual Console has been one of Nintendo's real success stories of the past decade, giving players a platform on which they can rediscover old classics and play titles they might have missed first time around.
While Nintendo hasn't given any solid details on what its plans are for the Virtual Console on the forthcoming...

Over the past few weeks, it seems that Nintendo of America has been keen to play catch up with the European Virtual Console. That trend looks set to continue, as this week's update will be including not one, but two DS games that are arriving nearly a year later on from their initial eShop debut. As always, better late than never,...

The Mario vs. Donkey Kong series has undergone a rather bizarre change in identity. What originally began as a continuation of the classic 1981 platformer that started it all, slowly morphed to become a Lemmings style puzzle series wherein you guide miniaturized of various Mario characters to exits. Though it could be...

Considering the Nintendo 64 is a twenty-year-old console, the title of this piece may seem odd. However, I personally think there is a potential future for the N64's hardware and software. We are currently in an important period for the console – 2016 and 2017 mark its twentieth birthday, depending on...

Over this past summer, it seems that Nintendo of America has been focused on playing catch up with it's VC offerings. Of course, there are still some massive gaps to be filled, but the VC has been becoming more and more relevant as it's been gradually built up. The New 3DS SNES VC has also benefitted from this, and it seems that...

Kirby has always sort of been an experimental franchise for Nintendo. Of course, the power-stealing platforming type of game has always been the foundation, but the Big N hasn't been afraid to branch out with new or weird gameplay ideas featuring the Super-Tuff Pink Puff. Over the years, this has resulted in...

There was a bit of a surprise on the latest Retro Spielen webcast with legendary composer Chris Huelsbeck - the show's special guest was none other than founding president and creative director of the defunct and very much missed Factor 5, Julian Eggebrecht. The stage was set for some nostalgic chatter...

Some of the more eagle-eyed among you may be wondering where the usual European Nintendo Download Update details are; that's a good question, as we're thinking the same thing . Nintendo hasn't sent out the press release to kick off the week, so we're working on the assumption it'll come later today or tomorrow. All is not...

Nowadays, Nintendo technically has two Super Mario RPG franchises. There's the quirky Mario & Luigi series on its portable platforms, and there's the Paper Mario games which are mostly for home consoles. Of course, Paper Mario has seemingly been shifting away from its RPG roots with its more recent...

Though there were a few tentative attempts at making a Metroid 64 for the Nintendo 64, nothing concrete ever fully materialised, leading many to wonder if Super Metroid would ever receive a proper follow up. The silence was finally broken many years later on the GameCube with the release of Metroid Prime, Samus' first 3D...

StarTropics is one of those franchises that saw its start on the NES and never really took off after that. Playing somewhat like a tropical version of The Legend of Zelda, StarTropics was something of a cult classic, made particularly famous for a letter which came with each copy that players had to dip in water to receive a secret message...

It's a well trodden discussion at this point that Nintendo's Virtual Console service has some room for improvement. While it's quite nice that it allows the opportunity for gamers both young and old to experience games from generations gone by, there are some issues with pricing and gaps in the library. Of course, there's...

Super Mario Advance 4 was a common enough game back in the day, but one area of this game was elusive to all but a handful of individuals who were of the importing nature. Now with the release of the game on the Wii U Virtual Console these exclusive levels are now available for all to play.
Check out our video below where...

Though it maybe doesn't get updated nearly as often as many would like, the DS library on the Virtual Console continues to grow at a fairly steady pace. Naturally, there are plenty of holes in the lineup thus far, but the process for making games available on the service is supposedly much more difficult than it seems on the...

One of the surprise announcements from the last Nintendo Direct was the revelation that SNES games would be playable on the New 3DS, with the famous "available after this presentation" line being delivered. While many fans were no doubt thrilled to see the classic 16-bit console's games being made available...

When these games were released back in the late nineties, the air around younger Game Boy owners was one of excitement and rivalry. Nintendo is clearly trying to capitalise on the nostalgia factor for all of us who were within the target age group (and some who weren't) when these titles were originally released,...

In one sense Super NES games on the New Nintendo 3DS is rather exciting - it's the first (legitimate) time a lot of these games can be played on a portable device, after all. That's something to celebrate, but the reveal and pending line-up also comes with its own nagging issues and annoyances, some of which could...

The three first generation Pokémon games are nearlyavailable on the 3DS Virtual Console, and to celebrate just a wee bit we though it might be fun to see if there are any subtle performance or graphical variations between this version and the original cartridges.
Using Pokémon Blue as a benchmark for no reason other...

UPDATE: We've since had more confirmation from Nintendo Life contributor Liam Robertson, who has posted the following on Twitter. It seems that Emily wasn't the only person who knew about this, but she might have let the cat out of the bag prematurely:
UPDATE #2: Eurogamer has also confirmed that it was previously...

It's been over a year since Mario Kart 8 was released on the Wii U and nearly 20 since its N64 sibling Mario Kart 64 graced our systems. A lot's changed in that time, and in order to highlight all the refinements a company like Nintendo can make in such a span, we've cobbled together another cheeky little comparison of the...

Some of you from around the earlier days of the Nintendo 64 may remember the Controller Pak. This add-on slotted into the back of the controller and acted as a means of saving or transferring data between consoles. While it wasn't absolutely necessary in every N64 game, many used it to include features...

It's with some curiosity that we observe the continuing clamour and passion for the Virtual Console, a service that generates as much buzz as it often does criticism. The appetite among keen Nintendo fans for retro downloads seems to remain strong, especially when rare or previously untapped games...

The e-Reader was an interesting and quirky peripheral for the Game Boy Advance. It seems like it never quite reached its full potential, but the idea of scanning cards into games to get additional content was a fairly novel idea at the time. In a sense, it could even be viewed as DLC before the concept had really...

The Game Boy Advance title Mother 3 hits the Japanese Virtual Console service today, and to mark the event Nintendo has released a surprisingly comprehensive trailer.
Mother 3 is the sequel to EarthBound - which was known in Japan as Mother 2. Originally intended for release on the N64's 64DD drive, it...

Medabots is a series that never really caught on much in the West. Something of a 'me-too' Pokémon series, the franchise instead focuses on building robot warrior Medabots instead of training monsters. It has some interesting ideas, such as how individual robot parts have their own health gauges, but...

Famitsu has revealed that Sega will be withdrawing Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 from the Wii Virtual Console at the end of the month.
The Mega Drive / Genesis classics will cease to be available via the service on Friday 30th October. The Xbox Live Arcade versions are also being taken down at t

The competitive speedrunning scene makes you look at games you thought you were familiar with in a whole different light. It can be remarkable to see the kinds of exploits and techniques that certain people have discovered and employed in order to shave just a few more milliseconds off of...

When the 3DS Virtual Console was introduced, it brought with it the promise of giving classic portable games a new lease in life much the same as the Wii Virtual Console did for classic console games. While it had a pretty strong start, it's no secret that the 3DS Virtual Console has been lacking for quite some...

Following the release of the Game Boy Advance title Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town on the North American Wii U Virtual Console, as well as Car Battler Joe, Natsume has announced Pocky & Rocky with Becky is locked in for an October release in both North America and Europe.
The action...

Another week, another helping of digital delights from Nintendo. If you're in Europe and you want to know exactly what titles you can download to your Wii U and 3DS this week, then you've certainly come to the right place.
Wii U eShop:
Year Walk (Simogo, £6.29 / €6.99) - Grim tales, horrifying...

If you happen to live in North America and are yet to experience Treasure’s brilliant Nintendo 64 title, Sin & Punishment, along with its sequel, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, on the Wii, then you’re in for a treat as of tomorrow – with both games releasing on the Wii U’s...

The Virtual Console promised so much when it launched alongside the original Wii all those years ago. Indeed, on that particular console it became something of a goldmine of amazing retro titles, and when Nintendo announced that the service would carry over to the Wii U, many...

The NFL arcade game originally developed by Tecmo in 1987 and ported to the NES in 1989 is expected to arrive soon on the Virtual Console in PAL regions after it was recently rated by the Australian Classification Board. This will be the first time Tecmo Bowl has been released in this region as...

After yesterday’s ESRB rating for the 2006 release, New Super Mario Bros., it was expected the title would launch soon on the North American eShop.
It appear fans of the DS hit won’t have to wait much longer with Nintendo’s official game page revealing the now classic Mario adventure will be made available thi

About a month ago, Nintendo finally got around to expanding its Virtual Console service by fulfilling its promise to add Nintendo DS games to the catalogue. The titles announced for the launch have all since released, but Nintendo has since remained silent on what we can expect to arrive...

Last month, Capcom announced that their "Mega May" event was back in full force for 2015, focused on bringing classic GBA Mega Man titles to the Wii U Virtual Console. Now that the month is here and we're already panicking about how fast time is slipping by, these weekly releases have launched into action, with...

Technologically, the world is busier and noisier than it's ever been before. So many gadgets and screens demand our time and loyalty, from smart TVs with hundreds of channels and streaming apps, to smartphones and tablets and, of course, game systems. Those with a decent amount of spare cash that are anxious to...

When the Wii launched it had plenty of exciting ideas that contributed to its extraordinary success. One service that appealed to older gamers and / or dedicated fans was the Virtual Console - while relatively niche services had offered older games for download in the past, this was a game...

If you'll remember back to this time last year, Capcom ran an event called "Mega May" in which at least one new Mega Man title was released on the Virtual Console each week. It was primarily focused on launching the remaining Game Boy Mega Man games as well as two from the GBC, though the Wii U didn't receive as much love...

Publisher Natsume has eight GBA titles ready for launch on the Wii U Virtual Console, according to director of operations Graham Markay.
Markay dropped the news during the latest Fragments of Silicon podcast, adding that the company had been planning its Virtual Console attack for quite some...

The avalance of Wii U Virtual Console games continues with a game that is new to the Virtual Console service, having never previously received a re-release. Rare's Donkey Kong 64 has achieved infamy thanks to THAT intro song, but is the gameplay worth talking about?
As someone who missed out on the game the first...

The WarioWare series is an excellent detour into the absolutely mad world of Wario and his friends, so it's great to see this DS game released on Wii U Virtual Console.
We thought we'd show you how great this game is via the medium of video. Watch and enjoy
Like this video? Subscribe to our channel then!

Nintendo DS games are finally getting their full chance to shine on the Wii U Virtual Console. The first of two games to be released at launch in Europe is Mario Kart DS, an excellent entry in the long-running racing series. All of your favourite Super Mario characters take to the roads once more...

Nintendo brought us all a treat during the most recent Nintendo Direct, when it announced the long-awaited arrival of Nintendo 64 games to Wii U Virtual Console. Available now on your Wii U, one of the first available games is the legendary Super Mario 64.
We took the time to play and capture some...

The Australian Classification Board has revealed Game Freak's GBA hit, Drill Dozer, will be arriving on the Wii U Virtual Console in the near future.
The critically praised action platformer previously released in Japan in 2005 and North America in 2006 has players take control of a...

It has been confirmed during the recent European Nintendo Direct that the Wii classics Pandora's Tower and Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies will be coming to the Wii U eShop in Europe on the 16th and 30th April respectively.
Both games will be subject to a 25 percent discount during their first week on...

If you feel that the Virtual Console on Wii U has been a neglected of late then today's Nintendo Direct should have put a big smile on your face. Nintendo not only reconfirmed its commitment to bringing Nintendo DS titles to the service, but also revealed that N64 games are on the way, too.
DS titles...

SEGA and Capcom continue their strong support for Nintendo’s digital eShop platform next week, with the simultaneous release of Sonic Advance and Mega Man & Bass on the Japanese Wii U Virtual Console. Priced at 702 yen each, the 2001 and 2002 Game Boy Advance titles will be unleashed on 18th February.
Sonic Advance is...

The Wii and Wii U have plenty of controllers and combinations on offer, even if on most occasions we can instinctively pick up our pad of choice and get on with playing. With the Wii U and Wii Virtual Consoles, though, there can be quirks that trip people up, one being the fact that the Wii U...

Nintendo has officially announced that Duck Hunt will be arriving on the Wii U eShop in North America on 25th December 2014. We've known that the title was coming to the West ever since it was revealed alongside the Duck Hunt character present in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, but until now we only knew the...

The fine folks over at HAL Laboratory have an affinity for protagonists who could double as pretty decent basketballs, and the often-forgotten NES puzzler Adventures of Lolo features our first example of a blob hero. Unlike the platforming cuteness of the Kirby series, arguably HAL's most famous creation, Lolo has a...

Halloween is a wonderful time of year to watch scary movies, eat candy and play spooky video games, as opposed to being out in the cold. To help you decide on your entertainment for this ghoulish evening, we've come up with a list of games that can be played on your Wii U and 3DS, with many of these...

With this coming weekend being the spookiest of the year, the latest Nintendo Download Update details for Europe show us that the big N's keen to keep us all entertained in the safety of our own homes, avoiding the ghouls outside. This week is packed with new titles on Wii U and 3DS,...

It's time to brighten our Mondays with the European Nintendo Download Update, once again, and this week serves up a lot of options across the Wii U, 3DS and even DSi. There are some new releases on both eShop platforms along with Virtual Console entries, plenty of discounts and even a DSiWare release...

Another week begins, yet this time around the customary Nintendo Download news for Europe includes one of the most anticipated titles of 2014. As well as that smashing arrival we have a retro double header across the Wii U and 3DS, along with a new arrival on the home console and a couple of...

Although many people are familiar with the Red Arremers, the notoriously persistent enemies from the Ghosts 'n Goblins games, not many seem to be aware that one particular Arremer also starred in several games of his own. The first Gargoyle's Quest was released on the 3DS Virtual Console a while back, and now we've finally...

They may not be a must-have item for Lolita fashion, but the uniquely Japanese undergarment called haramaki has shed its reputation of being for grandparents only and enjoyed a resurgence of popularity among the young and fashionable in the last decade or so. A haramaki, or belly warmer, is a sweater-like...

Who's up for a quick history lesson? While Donkey Kong is purely Nintendo's furry, banana-breathed baby, the company originally granted Coleco rights to produce console and tabletop versions of the hit arcade game. Coleco bundled Donkey Kong with their new ColecoVision in 1982, then ported...

Update:
The Capcom Unity blog has now confirmed the titles that will be included in this August promotion (thanks to Ryan Millar for the heads up). The release order is remaining a mystery for now, but the following four games are all coming to the Wii U eShop in the next month.
Mega Man 5 (NES)

Lack of attention at E3 2014 doesn't mean the service is being ignored

While Nintendo's E3 was a successful one, many fans were concerned by the worrying lack of Virtual Console-related news. While expectations with some gamers were probably a little too high — the prior announcement of the GameCube controller adapter for the Wii U led to...

If you're the superstitious type, you might be cowering at the fact that today is both Friday the 13th and the rising of a full moon; a doubly "unlucky" coincidence. If you're a Harvest Moon or Lufia fan, however, today's news from Natsume brings much more benevolent tidings.
Natsume has posted a roundup of their 3DS digital...

A couple of days late, Club Nintendo has updated its rewards for June, and we've got a delicious slate of games to choose from in North America. If you missed out on 3D Classics: Kirby's Adventure on Club Nintendo last month you're in luck – take a gander:
Electroplankton Rec-Rec – 150 coins...

Capcom lifted the floodgates on its Virtual Console lineup through its Unity blog today, announcing 18 retro titles on their way to North America and/or Europe by the end of the year. A few titles anticipated for later release were also revealed.
Mega Man makes up the metal bulk of the coming games...

Street Fighter II casts an indelibly long shadow over the rest of Capcom's fighting games from the 1990s. First launched in 1991, SFII in all its Super and Turbo varieties has become synonymous with the Street Fighter franchise, a cultural touchstone the series wasn't truly able to move past until the launch of the successful Street...

Ah, F-Zero. The futuristic racing series that’s so fast that even Nintendo appears to have lost track of it. While it’s true that Nintendo hasn't really done anything new with the series since it last released the Japanese exclusive F-Zero Climax way back in 2004 (the last game we got was F-Zero GP Legend during the same...

Ever since its first foray into the video game market, Nintendo has been known for the incredible amount of creativity it brings to the medium. Innovative ideas – whether they add a pleasing minor touch or groundbreaking gameplay feature – have to some degree been the company’s bread and butter for decades. It’s these...

If you've yet to play Hudson Soft's adorable Turbografx cute-em up Star Parodier, you are unfortunately out of luck as the title has been removed from the North American Wii Virtual Console.
It joins some other titles in the past year and more that have been removed from the service, with issues such as...

Nintendo released a number of sports titles in the NES era, a reflection of a simpler time when having a fancy home console was enough of a novelty that a game simply called Ice Hockey would seem like an awesome prospect. You like Ice Hockey? You've got Nintendo? Get Ice Hockey, which is Ice Hockey on your Nintendo!
That...

The Wii U is struggling. It’s a lovely looking console with some great games, but large developers whose names don’t start with “Nin” and end with “Tendo” are hardly queuing up to make software for the system, and there's little publicly visible to change that situation; the download-only scene is, thankfully, much...

Mario and Luigi’s adventures have been nothing short of fantastical over the years, to the point where you could be forgiven for questioning their occupations as plumbers. But despite the brothers’ incredibly varied employment history as doctors, sportsmen and racing drivers — in which they’ve rarely called upon their supposed...

Nintendo UK has confirmed that Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom is coming to the European 3DS eShop next week — the 23rd of January, to be precise.
The third game in the NES-based trilogy from Tecmo, Ninja Gaiden III is seen by many fans as the best of the three. "Ninja Gaiden III does a great job of being true...

Square Enix is a publisher that's made a significant push on smart devices, often standing apart due to its willingness to release some of its biggest franchises at premium prices, clearly resisting the ongoing race to the bottom. The latest case in point is Final Fantasy VI — commonly known on the...

From the moment protagonist Billy Lee’s sweetheart is sucker-punched in the opening sequence, Double Dragon establishes itself as an action-packed, thrilling battle through hordes of enemy combatants in an attempt to reclaim the captured damsel. As soon as gameplay begins, however, this façade is quickly stripped away to reveal an...

The space shooter is a genre that has somewhat faded into obscurity in recent years, both due to advances in technology rendering their limited scope obsolete and their typically gruelling difficulty proving unpalatable to some gamers. The NES port of Life Force, (or Salamander, as it was originally known on Eastern...

Nintendo’s Virtual Console service has been a constant treasure trove of classic gaming for many years now, covering hundreds of titles across some of the greatest systems to ever exist. It’s thrown up more than a few unexpected surprises along the way too – including this Japan-only port of the...

If you've ever dreamed of smothering the face of your brand new spouse with a giant slice of virtual dirt from the game Dig Dug, now is your chance. An entertainment company out of New Jersey, USA named POSH Entertainment has figured out how to make you lose even more of your hard earned coins by getting married,...

This week the 3DS eShop will finally be blessed with 3D classics from SEGA — including arcade classic Space Harrier — but getting these titles to run as perfectly as they do on 3DS was no easy task, as the developers have explained in a recent interview.
Naoki Horii,...

Wario's Woods has had quite a storied legacy over the last few decades, standing not only as the last officially licensed game released on Nintendo's legendary NES in North America in 1994, but also one of the very first titles available on the Wii's Virtual Console service. In-between those impressive milestones, it made an...

Update:
WiiWare title Art Style: Cubello is also available as a reward until 8th December, at a cost of 150 coins.
Original Article:
Nintendo has updated its North American Club Nintendo Rewards service with three new games to download.
From now until the 8th December 2013, users who have enough Club Nintendo...

Originally released in 1994, Wario's Woods holds the prestigious honour of being the last officially licensed game to release for the NES in North America; that's a remarkably long time after the console itself launched in the mid-eighties. Yet while it's impressive that the legendary system received a first-party...

Capcom is celebrating a lot this year, with the company itself reaching its 30th anniversary and Mega Man hitting his 25th birthday.
While the Blue Bomber hasn't had a new game to celebrate the occasion, he is to be a playable character in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. on Wii U and 3DS and...

Before the hyper-realistic, face-deforming technology of modern Tiger Woods games was conceived in the deepest dreams of Electronic Arts (a company busy with Marble Madness at the time), there was Golf for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game wears its no-nonsense attitude on its sleeve, focusing on simulating the time-honoured sport...

Tennis — the NES game, not the actual sport — hails from an age when the most rudimentary of virtual simulations could be entertaining and notable simply by existing, perhaps causing a passing family member to comment on how it looks just like the real thing. Although a genuine novelty in the 80s, this dull-as-toast recreation of...

Nintendo has updated the Wii Shop Channel with a new message stating that Yoshi's Cookie will be no longer available for sale as of 11th October.
The surprise announcement doesn't provide any details as to why the NES game is being removed. It was originally developed by Bullet-Proof Software, with Nintendo acting as...

Hudson had many classics in its NES library - Adventure Island, Faxanadu and Bomberman are just a few of the great titles it gave us all back then. Milon's Secret Castle probably shouldn't be counted among those.
As the title might reveal, you play as Milon, who has to make his way through a castle filled to the brim with...

The Wii Virtual Console was not only the first of its kind on Nintendo hardware, but it had terrific diversity in the platforms and games that it offered; we'll have to see how far the Wii U Virtual Console progresses on those terms. One of the platforms that was supported, giving excellent opportunities to those that...

Monday mornings are, perhaps strangely, relatively happy times for some Nintendo gamers in Europe. The download delights due this week have been revealed, and this time around there are two new Wii U download-only games, a long awaited 3DS RPG and much more. Let's get right to the details,...

If there's one thing that you could pretty much be assured of when it came to a Koei game back in the day, it was getting a lot of depth to your gameplay experience. Not only were you generally treated to a very high production value visual experience, but the attention to detail and historical accuracy was always of high quality...